Monday, June 22, 2009

You may recognize these deer from a loading screen at Christmas (sorry for the lousy picture). Soon, you won't be able to get them for Christmases future.

Relic is closing- at the end of this month (not long as all now!), The Nameless Isle goes to its new owner, and Relic will cease to have any in world presence. Relic items will still be procurable on xstreetsl- but only until the end of this year, after which, they will be gone- their legacy will live in on beautiful items that people have obtained, but will never be available to anyone else to own.

Like Miriel, this is another brand leaving not because the advent of new technology in SL killed them, but are leaving at the top of their game, while still capable of creating top notch content. Running a brand in SL takes a great deal of time and money- it's a produce or perish environment. One can't take a break (look at how Ivalde was only able to stay without closing doors completely due to the kindness of Retrology), because, well, tier costs money (tier costs a ridiculous amount of money. $300 a month just to break even- that's without taking anything back to spend in SL or out of it to support all the work you're doing)- even if you don't own a sim, you're paying into that system, because your rent, pays tier. You may be paying a smaller chunk of it....but you're still having to pay out just for that stark reality of SL, the fact we are all beholden to the Lindens' servers, and the Lindens' pricing structure (in fact, you even have to get some kind individual to let you have a spot for a single prim for xstreet servers- which is why at the end of the year, Relic will be gone forever). The owners of Relic have had too many RL obligations to be able to keep creating at a pace to make staying in SL worth it. After all, your regulars will have already bought everything! And you can't expect to have a steady enough influx of new people constantly to be able to hold on until you've got the time to devote to it.

The Nameless Isle itself is still an incredible experience, if you hop out of the skybox for a look. It's very reliant on glow- and in fact shows off glow's strength, not just as a silly little gimmick, but the wonder and beauty it can truly bring. If you can't see glow, I fear your visit to the Isle will be far less impressive- it's still a marvel of terraforming with massive peaks dipping down to tumultuous waters below, a magnificent stone bridge spanning the gap. But you won't see the true centerpiece for what it is, a gigantic sim spanning light show, that continues high into the sky.

I'm wearing a handful of hairstyles from the Hair Fair (which I lagged my way through with the help of a box for riding, too bad you can't FIND any of them, and setting my RenderAvatarMaxLimit or something like that in Debug to 1, so I would only have 2 or 3 other avatars loading to lag me)- I'm only wearing (and often showing badly as it isn't the only focus of the pictures) one from each designer, but all from each of them are well worth your attention. This is Demona from Draconic Kiss, which makes me want to be some wonderful towering witch cursing poor impudent princes who dare to have the audacity to meddle in my plans for lovely princesses.

This is Kat Jamz, one of Katat0nik's trio of hairstyles- all of which followed the musical theme, with optional headphones and music notes, and scripting for all sorts of options. I'm also in Sugar Sugar, which I made for the Koreshan Bake Sale (which ends/ended today, depending on how many people have picked up their stuff yet!), both because I love Koreshan deeply as one of those truly fantastic sims in SL, and in honour of the Candyland theme of the Hair Fair (which I have a tiny bit of wish that I had gotten into...but I didn't have hair textures made up until after the application process was well over. The sculpt kits the designers got to use for it are amazing, and the builds are fantastic...but I didn't see a single one with the idea I would have done, surprisingly!)

Fashionably Dead created some truly magnificent sculpts for her hair offerings this year, I adore the jagged edges at the bottom of Sparks Goes To Town (and the hatless cousin, Sparks). Toast always creates with her feet firmly in the realm of imagination and whimsy (the hat has a great little witch's peak, and is scripted with a variety of colour options), as does Relic, especially apparent in the set of Christmas trees released this past year, some of which can be seen, with perfect giant holly leaves creating the familiar silhouette out of unorthodox, but just as festive, material.

The heavy gothic wood in this picture is probably familiar to you- this furniture is all over the grid, in well outfitted castles. It is perfectly strong and imposing and beautifully faithful to the period. Maybe because I watched that post Apocalyptic Beowulf again last night (the one with Christopher Lambert), but I had to wear Lazy Places' Dawn, sitting there, the braided loops reminiscent of medieval hairstyles- but of course, I can't do it normal, I just have to wear it in bizarre colours (Do you really think you could see Allegory as a blond or brunette?). Lazy Places made their first overtures into hair for the Hair Fair, and they are the sort of cute adorable thing you would expect from them. The colour change fringe talks to you and tells you you're pretty- how cute is that?

I had to turn glow back on (I have to leave it off most of the time to be able to run SL at all, I fear) for the softly glowing spiderwebs of this opulent canopy bed- as well as period gothic, Relic has a bit that's, well, a bit goth. You can just barely see House of Munster's Vixen in there, in a brooding black (as my dark and tortured soul), a long and spiky layered style for a bit of a different take on long flowing hair.

Mary Mary isn't available at the Hair Fair, as Ki2 chose, like myself, not to participate, it's only at her shop in Lloyd. There are two variations of Mary Mary, with and without the cascade of hair flowing down the back- and it requires you actually wear a hair base, with, gasp!, hair! So it isn't a nightmare to fit, bits of the hair that are most form fitting are the hair base (which is also, of course, retextured to match properly), with prim hair covering up all the horribly messy things that come of the awful hair mesh- the two work in harmony to create a lovely style.

How's that for the least hair centric hair post you're apt to see during the Hair Fair? Take a break from swimming through treacle in all that lag, and give Relic a visit, so you don't miss out on the opportunity for any hidden gems that you just have to have. It's another place that I am terribly sad to see go, two of the creators who truly made SL a more beautiful and amazing place, and we will all be just a little less wonderful for their absence.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I'm writing this to you from the past, oooooOOOOoooooo. And I don't have the right LM available right now (so wander around the sim, it's there...somewhere. Look for the tables in the middle of the open area), as I'm going in and out of crashing at the hair fair (bald, shoeless, and in a bathing suit made of meat).

The Koreshan Bake Sale is this weekend! It was held over from last weekend because, well, LL was not so helpful is figuring out why the sim performance sucked as bad as it did until there was more yelling :/

I'm a part of the fun this year! My contribution is a sweet little confection called Sugar Sugar, inspired by those Barbie cakes where the skirt was cake and you piped clothes onto the Barbie torso (one year when I was very small, my mother made FIVE of them for me for my birthday):

(eyes in all are Anime Miriel eyes, necklaces are from the Cake or Death sets by Violet Voltaire, earrings are cupcakes and lollypops, also by Violet Voltaire, hair in all is Nekomi, shoes are Lucent Heels, skin in Death is Diamond Dogs, others are unreleased. Poses in all but the two at either end are awesome Lazy Places poses, left is by sunflower poses, and right is by Luth)

There are lots and lots of other goodies to be had! The Bake Sale is only going on this weekend, so you've got to stop by quick!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

On and off I've been working on hair textures for....a very long time. I have a tendency to do a couple, decide I don't like them, and start over from scratch. Finally this time I made a full set that I think I can live with though! It's all Hair Fair's fault, you people got me in the mood, even though I'm not going to be in Hair Fair (I learned my lesson about getting into a fair with a bunch of unfinished things with Shoe Fair....I still have boots I was going to release at that unfinished...)

All the fatpacks come with wackyass HUDs that let you change the whole shebang to any of the colours, as well as the ability to change sections you choose to any, so you can do mixed things.

Veronique was mini released in October, with an earlier hair texture revision, just in black with white streaks. Now Veronique has a full contingent of colours:

(Miriel eyes, Schadenfreude skins/clothing/jewelry- the skin and jewelry on green 'hawked Alle aren't available yet, the earrings on Frankenstein's monster Alle were a freebie last Halloween)
Single (well, 5 colour) packs of Veronique come with solids, and with white streaks (except white, which has black streaks), with the solid colours. The tips have tips flipped both directions, no streaks. The fatpack has easy control of dying the streaks and/or the fringe/bangs the colour of your choice (plus you can select individual prims to change in all fatpacks).

Nekomi is something I put together for an ad series, because I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but couldn't find the hair I wanted to do it with.

(Miriel eyes; on Cotton Candy tips- ~silentsparrow~ meatcake dress, Schadenfreude unreleased skin; on Azul hair- ~silentsparrow~ gutter glitter outfit, Schadenfreude Diamond Dogs skin and Jerry's Lament jewelry)
Both styles of fringe are included in all packs, additionally mini packs have the ability to hide or show the little fluffy bits at the base of the ponytails, and the fatpack lets you show/hide those, change them to the colour of your choice, and also change the bangs/fringe, the side pieces, and change one half independent of the other, for mixing (as well as choosing individual prims).

Here's Nekomi coloured with the HUD to be all rainbowy for the new ~silentsparrow~ lucky chair set:

Fairuza just sort of weirdly happened- I was playing around with yet another bob, and pulling hair back behind the ears to show off jewelry and the face, and ended up with something that strongly reminded me of Fairuza Balk from The Craft (what is it about the batshit insane ones that make them so hot?)

Schadenfreude Enterprises

Schadenfreude is a brand is Second Life, which has a big black elephant on Nouveau.

There are also a few things that were available in world for a limited time for events, or that have been retired from the elephant, that are now ONLY available on the Marketplace. (Including all the hair!)

Gifting

With the death of onrez, I have no comprehensive web based gifting systems. Selections of items are on the Second Life Marketplace.

I am also very happy to gift items for you if you contact Allegory Malaprop directly! And you can also get old fashioned gift cards, if you contact me directly (sadly, many gift card systems are prone to security holes that can open up with no notice- if I do it by hand I can keep track a bit better...in theory).

flickr

Bloggers

I don't have a blogger list, for a number of reasons. I love seeing things blogged! I just don't do blogger lists, or review copies beyond some events. I totally do respect that blogging is expensive, even with promotional copies, and I'm sorry, but this is what works for me.

p.s. I do love to chat (though I'm not actually good at it- you'll probably have to carry the conversation!), so do feel free to talk to me anyway!